In order to discharge patients from hospitals or other clinical facilities, a great deal of planning often takes place. A care worker assigned as a discharge planner typically begins the discharge process on the day the patient enters the hospital. The discharge planner prepares a significant amount of paperwork to ensure that discharged patients receive proper, safe medical care upon leaving the clinical facility. This post-discharge medical care can be provided by medical providers such as skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), assisted living centers, pharmacies, medical equipment providers, medical transport (e.g., ambulances), therapy and treatment centers (e.g., dialysis treatment), medical laboratories, and the like.
In order to ensure a safe discharge for a patient, a discharge planner typically faxes discharge requests, which include large amounts of patient information, to several medical providers. The discharge planner then waits for a response from the medical providers. Each medical provider reviews the extensive fax documents to find relevant information about the patient and then determines, depending on the type of medical provider, if a room, medicine, equipment, therapy, or the like is available for the patient. The medical providers then fax back their responses, and the discharge planner chooses from among the medical providers who responded positively.